Amazing Fantasy Fest 2025 Coverage
Burnt Flowers review
Investigations collide with the past in Burnt Flowers.
Festival movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Burnt Flowers
Directed by Michael Fausti
Written by Michael Fausti
Starring Amber Doig-Thorne, Laurence R. Harvey, Ayvianna Snow, Dani Thompson, Dean Kilbey, Faith Elizabeth and Michael Fausti
Burnt Flowers Review
Burnt Flowers kicked off day four of this year’s Amazing Fantasy Fest. Unlike most features at the film festival…Burnt Flowers wasn’t accompanied by a short (or three) before it began. What I initially thought was a strange oversight given the pattern established at the festival over the years began to make sense the deeper we journeyed into Michael Fausti’s new film. The short films attached to features generally have something in common with the movie to follow. I doubt anyone submitted anything that lined up with what Burnt Flowers was doing. That’s a compliment.
IMDB lists Burnt Flowers as a horror film. At the time of this review that is the only designation assigned to it. I can think of a half dozen things that I’d call it before a horror film. Horror is definitely among the descriptions I’d use…it is the story of a serial killer complete with some bloody (but stylish) murders. But it’s also a noir crime thriller and a detective/mystery movie. It’s all of these things at once…giving it a unique feel that isn’t fully covered by a “horror” tag.
The story takes place in multiple time periods. It begins, as many detective noir films do, with a woman walking into a detective’s office. Detective Franc Alban (Amber Doig-Thorne) is tasked with finding Alice’s (Ayvianna Snow) missing husband. The weird thing is…her husband disappeared eight years ago. It only gets stranger from there. Franc discovers a connection between the missing, and presumed dead, man she is looking for and a serial killer in the late 60s. And her own mother.
With three tracks winding together and multiple characters of interest both living and dead…Franc uncovers secrets and lies…and more unhelpful faces than allies. Chief among her problems is incarcerated (but not for long) murderer Tony Rose (Fausti). Rose adds an element of true danger to Franc’s investigation. She finds herself in the (literal) crosshairs on more than one occasion. What is he trying to hide? Is Alice’s husband still out there somewhere? Is Alice even who she claims to be? Who murdered all those people in the 60s? And what does it have to do with Franc’s mother who was killed eight years ago?
Burnt Flowers answers all these questions as it brings their individual strands closer and closer together. I’m not going to tell you that every piece of it fits as well as others. One, in particular, I’m not exactly sure what the resolution was. Another is far more obvious than the others. Taken as a whole, however, Burnt Flowers multiple converging mysteries make for an engaging watch. There’s always a new piece of information around the corner. How they fit together is the fun of trying to solve the puzzle.
Aiding that engagement is a stylish look to the film. I’m not even sure how I’d describe it…but it is pretty to look at. The cast seems to be fully committed to the odd time hopping and modern noirish tone. They don’t all play the same note…but they play notes that fit together well. The femme fatale, the violent criminal, the mysterious missing man who we see scenes set in the past…everyone creates something memorable with their parts.
Story advancements are intercut with the 1960s killing spree. We see the final moments of several victims…complete with on-screen text giving us their names and when their murders took place. It all combines into something that feels fresh but lived-in at the same time. Burnt Flowers puts a lot on screen for its reportedly ultra-low budget. Style doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Though crossing the wrong person in this story might.
Scare Value
Burnt Flowers hops through different time periods and different investigations to weave a tapestry leading to one truth. It’s a stylish movie that manages to keep a lot of balls in the air at once. A unique kind of procedural noir…with a familial connection at the center of it all. Not every choice works perfectly…but it makes enough choices to keep you engaged with the slowly unraveling story. Well worth checking out.
